Wait - What IS Real-Time Marketing?

Every few years, something magical comes along. Marketers get excited, the internet gets excited, and we all decide that this, this strategy is the new wave, the marketing strategy that will take us to the next level. So - who’s the lucky homecoming queen? It seems that real-time marketing stole the crown this year.

Big brands, those companies generally promoting and writing about real-time marketing define it as - interacting with their target audience based on current local, national or global events and trends and responding to immediate customer feedback. When a company interjects itself into a current trend or craze, they aim to make their product more appealing based on the association of said product or company with an exciting or trending event. Generally this happens in the form of a meme, video, or graphic shared on social media channels.

This is the antithesis to planning ahead and plotting a marketing strategy to roll out over the course of the quarter or year. Big brands, with big budgets, obviously have the leg up in being able to experiment in real - time, some having huge success, while others not as much.

The term newsjacking has also been floating around in association with real-time marketing. When you research this trend, you may find a clearer - more agreed upon definition. This might simply be due to the straight-forward nomenclature.

However, many marketers have a different definition of real-time marketing.

According to a study done by Neolane and the Direct Marketing Association recently released a study of 235 North American marketers, and to them, real time marketing was defined as, “dynamic, personalized content delivered across channels.”

Here’s what they think real-time marketing means.

The majority of the participants (43%) think of real-time marketing as “dynamic, personalized content delivered across channels.”

64% of participants believe real-time marketing revolves around some kind of dynamic personalization.

Only 23% believe real-time marketing is about making quick responses to mainstream events or injecting your business in social media conversations.

That doesn’t really align with what brands are promoting. Where’s the disconnect? It might be that the practice hasn’t been around long enough and still needs some time to settle. Or, perhaps, real-time marketing is all of the above, or none...what do you think?